ABSTRACT
This chapter examines whether social violence in wartime, resulting in civilian mortality, can be said to reach "epidemic" proportions. According to A Dictionary of Epidemiology, an epidemic can be defined as "the occurrence in a community or region of cases of an illness, specific health-related behavior, or other health-related events clearly in excess of normal expectancy". The chapter attends to the threshold at which the number of deaths exceeds expectation with respect to wartime civilian mortality in Iraq from 2003 through 2007. It emphasizes the drama and manipulation inherent in warfare. "Alarums and excursions" was the Elizabethan stage direction indicating warlike sounds or activity. The chapter concentrates on a particular contested epidemic of high mortality, namely, the number of civilian deaths in Iraq from the US invasion in 2003 until January 2008.
